Yearly Archives: 2012

GStar 2012 Extras: DragonÂ’s Prophet Early Access

GStar 2012 Extras: Dragon’s Prophet Early Access

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

One of the most interesting booths I stumbled upon during my B2B rampage described in our Day 2 GStar coverage was none other than Runewaker, devs behind Runes of Magic and upcoming dragon training MMORPG, Dragon’s Prophet. Although the Tang Brothers were a little iffy at first of exposing some of their info to the western media, I finally got a chance to sit in for the GStar demo which expanded greatly on the frontier system and dragon taming system. Let’s discuss!

 

 

Some random tidbits of interest included that there will actually be massive airships used for transportation in the game beyond just flying dragons. Because flying dragons are only one type of dragon, you might not always have one available to use so this is good news for increasing diversity in the game without limiting player’s options. But what caught me off guard is that there will be dragons that can actually swim into the water, and combat designed around this feature. Nowhere will be safe in Dragon’s Prophet as land, air, and water will fill with battling dragons! Though this may or may not be available at launch so don’t get too excited just yet.

 

 

The next piece they covered was the identification of dragons and dragon levels. Turns out with over 300 dragons in-game you are going to have some that are just plain more powerful than others. This will be reflected in appearance, with more basic dragons taking on the form of beasts and birds (their exact word was chickens) rather than more traditional western or Asian styled dragons. I got a laugh when I saw a picture of an early level tank dragon that appeared to be a buffalo.

 

 

The Dragon’s Lair and Taming

It makes sense that a game about taming and raising dragons would have a type of advanced tamagotchi system for managing them. The Dragon’s Lair is the primary way Runewaker plans to award players for activity and constant logging in. You can set your dragon to assignment even when you’re offline for up to 5 hours. This includes setting them out question for treasures or crafting materials for you. There also seems to be a system in place for breeding or merging dragons in order to transfer rare skills from one type of dragon onto another type that is unable to learn that skill naturally.

 

 

So a question that was only briefly answered in my SOE Live interview was where you initially get these dragons from. At the time the Tang Brothers told me you just kind of lasso them. I’m sure I wasn’t alone to think of a cowboy in a 10 gallon hat riding on the back of a dragon with rope in hand. Well now I can say with certainty… we really weren’t far off with that assumption. You actually jump on the back of the dragon you wish to catch and begin a minigame revolving around rapidly pressing arrow keys in accordance with a guide icon. This will cause your icon to try to stay in the center of a circle while the dragon fights against you to push the icon out of the circle. As the icon falls closer to the edge of the circle, you will lose hp on a bar to the left of the icon. If you stay close to the center, the dragon’s hp will decrease over time. If you can maintain to the end, the dragon becomes yours to command!

 

 

Once a dragon is yours you’ll be able to assign it missions at your lair, feed it various foods to increase loyalty, or take it out with you as a combatant or mount. It costs energy to both summon your dragon to battle for you as well as use some of its more advanced skills so use your dragon sparingly. When summoned but not riding your dragon, it will engage in fighting to you aid, though at different levels of attentiveness depending on how well the two of you get along. Like Ash with Charizard, you may not get the results you seek instantly with the more powerful dragons.

 

 

As your dragon levels up and gains power, you can allocate skill points to them. While the majority of the stats are straight forward things like defense, attack power, and so on, the explosive stat seemed new. When I questioned them on it they replied that the explosive stat is a proc change that will effect how often your dragon goes into beast mode or does something amazing to wipe out multiple foes. Therefore an explosive dragon may lack the base strength of its counterparts, but can catch an overconfident foe off-guard for a final burst of damage at any time. Knowing your enemy’s dragon and yours is key to victory in PvP.

 

 

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Crafting and Upgrading

Armor upgrading was explained in slightly better detail as well. I’ll be blunt, this isn’t the most revolutionary part of the game and follows the typical crafting patterns of other MMORPGs albeit with the inclusion of your dragons assisting you. However a bit more strategic decision making is offered with your choice to gem and stat alter your gear. Each piece of gear will have an energy limit and a number of slots that impact how many gems you can place in it. You’ll have to balance your upgrading between the choice of filling every slot with gems as well as ensuring you don’t consume all the gear’s energy on the first slot to an overly powerful gem, losing the potential of the additional slots.

 

 

Ever found a rare piece of gear in an MMORPG only to realize its stats aren’t ideal for you? Dragon’s Prophet allows you to reroll this gear to change the bonus stats to something more preferential to your class, ensuring every good drop is protected from the wrath of RNG.

 

 

The Frontier

The final piece of the GStar tour Runewaker offered was a look into the frontier system where I learned a bit more about how this sandbox style PvP heavy realm functions. And to sum it up in a two words, Feudalistic Society. See neither land nor protection comes free in the world of Dragon’s Prophet so you can expect to pay a heavy down payment on the land you intend to build on, as well as regular maintenance costs to keep your land from being sold back to the bank. Of course the more real estate you own, the higher the price, but that’s where the feudalistic community comes into play.

 

 

Guilds can actually create the centerpieces of this world by purchasing extremely large tracks of land large enough to not only build a guild castle, but for multiple members to build houses outside of it on the same track of land. This will all be managed via the guild leader who made the purchase so players will have to pay in to him as a group to keep their society going. Once established it’s up to this guild what they will do with the independent neighbors near their land. Do you go mafia style and charge nearby houses protection costs to keep rival armies from raiding their land? Or perhaps simply request enlistment to protect your zone as a member of the king’s army? This will all be up to the players so who really knows how the society will play out once it unfolds.

 

 

Though one thing we can all look forward to is just how customizable your house is. You can literally stack furniture on top of furniture to make bizarre Picasso style pieces. Or grow a garden out front and harvest herbs for crafting. I could really see players making a living as home decorators because there is just so many pieces of furniture you can acquire, various ways you can organize it, and even awesome items that provide functionality within the privacy of your own plot of land. Though you can’t build a house on top of a chair… some realism is in play I guess. I myself have plans to turn my plot of land into a jump quest amusement park!

 

 

It’s still likely going to be many months before we see anything close to a beta test for Dragon’s Prophet but from what I saw at GStar and SOE Live I’m sure this game will be worth the wait. If you consider yourself a pet enthusiast or just enjoy a strong community driven political system than stay tuned as this game may turn out to be exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

RaiderZ has Officially Launched in Europe

RaiderZ has Officially Launched in Europe

 

RaiderZ

 

After the success of the beta phase, the gates to the monster-hunting MMO RaiderZ are open as of today, initially in English and German language versions. Players can look forward to exciting battles against massive boss opponents, tons of engaging quests, extensive PvP features and a sophisticated guild system. RaiderZ also allows players to create truly individual characters and to imbue them with over 350 talents and diverse equipment items – your will be done!

 

Winter is fast approaching, but all is not doom and gloom since there’s a fantastic event to look forward to. But there’s even more – in early 2013, Patch 1.1 will be arriving, the first of many planned content updates. Here’s what Rüdiger Mörsch, our Product Director, had to say on the launch of RaiderZ: “I’m really excited that we’ve now reached release status after a thoroughly successful beta phase. I’d like to take this chance to thank our beta testers for the great feedback and ample constructive criticism. I’m certain that RaiderZ will be a lot of fun for the players and us.”

 

 

Budding monster hunters can download the free game client and join the fray now by visiting: http://www.raiderz-europe.com/en/free-to-play.html.

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/19: Darkfall, Transformers Universe, Remnant Knights, and Realms Online

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/19: Transformers Universe, Darkfall, Remnant Knights, and Realms Online

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Transformers Universe Accepting Beta Sign Ups

Jagex is proud to announce that they are now accepting applications for Transformers Universe. During the registration you’re asked to pick sides. So you should ask yourself, Autobot or Decepticon? This browser game is said to be action packed and be team based warfare. You can sign up to take part in upcoming betas on the official site. http://www.transformersuniverse.com

 

 

Darkfall: Unholy Wars Video Highlights Fire Mage


A new video has been released showing off the Fire School of Elementalists from Darkfall: Unholy Wars. The class is a long range mage who deals high damage. The video shows off several of the Fire School’s abilities. The video is nearly two minutes long and can be seen below.

 

 

Remanant Knights and Realms Online Getting in on Black Friday

GameSamba has some Black Friday deals you don’t have to get up at four in the morning for to get your hands on. Starting at 12.01 AM Pacific Time Remanant Knights will have a new offer every hour. These discounts will be for in game items and range from 50-75%.  While Realms Online will have the Grind and Stash pack for 75% off!

AlphaBeta Soup 11/16: RIFT, City of Steam, DK Online, and More!

AlphaBeta Soup 11/16: RIFT, City of Steam, DK Online, and More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

It’s been an exciting week in the world of alphas and betas and next week is shaping up to be even more awesome! As you might have noticed we have a fantastic new banner! Our soup bowl was drawn by my friend, the amazingly talented Jess-o! The really big news this week was that Rift’s first expansion Storm Legion launched. OnRPG currently has beta keys for Absolute Force Online’s closed beta and City of Steam’s closed beta. In addition you can snag a beta pack for DK Online.

Chrono Tales is now accepting closed beta applications, but there are no dates yet for when that will be. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend City of Steam is holding the first of several closed beta weekends. This is in addition to all the many other games listed below.

As ever any new additions are highlighted below in orange.

OnRPG Giveaways

These are all the beta giveaways currently running on OnRPG. There’s no guarantee that we won’t run out so grab them quick.

Absolute Force Online Closed Beta Key Giveaway
City of Steam Closed Beta Giveaway
DK Online Beta Pack Giveaway

Dates Announced:

Below are the MMOs who have announced upcoming beta events that haven’t started yet.

Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn: Alpha applications now being accepted
City of Steam: Closed Beta November 16
PlanetSide 2: Launches November 20
Hawken: Closed Beta November 20-December 6
WorldAlpha: Closed Beta November 22-25, December 6-9, 20-23
Kartuga: Alpha November 24th (Event is only for 16 people who will be invited to the studio after a competition)
Arctic Combat: Open Beta December 6
Path of Exile: Open Beta December
Age of Wulin: EU Closed Beta 2013

Alpha:

These games are currently in Alpha. Signups are available via the link.

The Repopulation
Xulu

Closed Beta:

MMOs which are in closed beta require application and often require approval before access can be gained.

Absolute Force Online
Age of Wulin(EU, Asia) EU in Early 2013
Age of Wushu(US) Ends November 25, Round 2 Begins December 20th
Ascension: Arenas of War
Black Prophecy Tactics: Nexus Conflict
Born To Fire
Bounty Hounds Online
Chrono Tales Closed Beta Coming Soon, Registration Going On Now
DK Online
Dragon Nest EU
Dust 514
Hawken November 8-13
Firefall
Forge
Grimlands
GUNS and ROBOTS
JollyGrim
Marvel Heroes
Patterns
Pirate101
Ravaged
Salem
SmashMuck Champions
SMITE
Starlight Story
Strategoria
UFO Online
The War Z
World of Warplanes

Open Beta:

Games in open beta require an application but often it is little more than signing up for an account.

Cyber Monster
District 187 Due to officially launch November 20
End of Nations No current beta event ongoing
MechWarrior Online
Oversoul
RaiderZ (Founders Pack includes Neverwinter closed beta access)
Soul Captor
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Online (Russian)
Universal Monsters Online

Expansions:

These are the beta events for games which are already live. These are for new content which is going to be added to the game at a later date. Access is limited to the current playerbase and often requires special permissions to take part.

Guild Wars 2 Mobile Authenticator
Lord of the Rings Online Mac

League of Legends: ZZZ…zzz…ZZZ

League of Legends: ZZZ…zzz…ZZZ

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

As a high damage burst assassin, Zed’s only goal is to get into a weak enemy’s face and murder them in record time. Making use of his shadow clones, he can be highly mobile if he chooses, but does so at the cost of his damage output. While he can go jungle or top, he’s best suited to mid, where he gets to bully those soft, squishy mages. His playstyle is similar to other burst assassins like Katarina or Talon. Orianna players, already familiar with keeping track of her ball, may be at home with keeping track of Zed’s shadows.

 

Pros:

Can scream “I’LL GET THOSE BLASTED NINJAS!” in all chat

Manaless energy user (When mid your jungler can use blue, letting Hecarim shine)

His ultimate allows him to melt squishy targets (If fed)

Very long range poke for a melee character

 

Cons:

Has to burn his escape tools to crowd control enemies

Gets all of his mid to late game damage from his ultimate

High energy costs

His only means of regaining energy is highly unreliable

Terrible damage output without his clone

A gentle breeze could kill him

He’s an awful jungle choice

Very hard to play, with little room for error

 

 

Ability Summary


Contempt for the weak [Passive]: Zed’s auto attacks deal more damage to people on low health.

 

Razor Shuriken [Q]: Linear skillshot thrown by Zed and his shadows. Deals more damage to the first target it hits. If a target is hit by multiple shurikens, the damage is halved on all hits after the first.

 

Living Shadow [W]: Linear skillshot that creates a shadow clone of Zed at the targeted location. Reactivating this ability will cause Zed to switch places with his shadow. If both Zed and a shadow hit the same target with the same ability, he gains energy.

 

Shadow Slash [E]: Zed and his shadows create an AoE around themselves, dealing damage. If an enemy is caught by a Shadow Slash made by a shadow, they’ll be slowed. If caught by multiple slashes, an enemy will get slowed even more, but won’t suffer additional damage.

 

Death Mark [R]: Targeted gap closer that summons a shadow behind Zed’s victim. Like his Living Shadow, the shadow made from this ability can be switched to. After a few seconds, a percentage of all damage dealt during that timespan, plus Zed’s current attack damage, will be dealt to the unfortunate target. In correct combination with the rest of his kit, Dark Mark will make people explode.

 

 

Combos & Shenanigans

The whole of Zed’s kit revolves around the many different uses for his shadow clones, and the way they interact with the rest of his kit. If you’re playing against a Zed and don’t know what to do, just remember this golden rule: You will win any damage trade with him if his Living Shadow is on cooldown, so press him hard immediately after his shadow clone disappears. Even worse, since Living Shadow is his only escape tool, he’ll have no way of getting out if you bring some friends along.

 

 

His basic combo for leaping in or escaping is Living Shadow, Shadow Slash, Reactivate Living Shadow, Razor Shuriken, Shadow Slash. It’s always important to hit an enemy with a shadow slash before you switch to get the slow, preventing escape or stalling your pursuers. Add in auto attacks when leaping in to trigger a bit of extra damage from his passive.

 

 

When harassing, throwing out a clone to extend the reach of his Shuriken can be quite effective, but it wastes a lot of damage, and wastes Zed’s all important Living Shadow on mundane harass. If you can, always try to hit an enemy with both Shadow Slash and at least one shuriken to make the use of a shadow worth it.

 

 

A really annoying part of the way that his shadow is summoned is that it’s done as a skillshot, not simply ground targeting. This means that when casting through walls, if the wall is slightly too thick, it won’t auto correct to the side of the wall you want to wind up on. Oh, no. You’ll just get a shadow right next to you, smiling happily and saying “I’m helping!”

 

 

When using his ultimate, make sure Zed’s Living Shadow is off cooldown and his energy bar is full. Before going in you need to decide how you’re going to use his Living Shadow. Either hold onto it until after you open with his ultimate for more damage, and cut off lines of escape, throw it behind you before leaping in to act as a bungie cord or use it to close distance before leaping in with Death Mark.

 

 

Once the mark is on them, blow everything you have as quickly as possible, slowing the enemy, hurling shurikens at them and hitting them with ignite if you have it. With everything on cooldown, teleport as needed for auto attacks or escape, and wait for the secondary damage from the Death Mark to finish them off.

 

 

More often than not though, even using everything you have won’t be enough to kill even the squishiest targets.

 

 

Conclusions

I want to like Zed, but the fact that he’s awful in every conceivable way just keeps getting in the way. Call me petty, but I just can’t get over that little hurdle. If Zed was a real person, I’d smack him upside his masked face so he’d get off the damn couch, go to the gym and man the hell up.

 

 

While he’s manaless, his energy costs are titanic. The only way he can refund his energy investment is by using an ability that costs half of his energy to begin with, and has an exceptionally long cooldown. Even then, you have a good chance of missing with one of his abilities, stopping any hope of an energy refund. Think pre-rework Shen, but even more punishing.

 

 

It’s also telling when a character’s defining characteristic on an incredibly long cooldown. When you look at Zed’s abilities it looks like he’s going to be flying all over the place, making shadows appear and disappear while juking multiple foes into submission. Instead what you get is a one use ability that often has to be blown just to keep his damage above a support. Even worse, while his Shadow Slash has a very short cooldown, since he only gets access to his only crowd control from the shadow he has to kill his enemies extremely quickly or else he won’t be able to slow them again for (in the early levels) twenty seconds. Compared to the chain slows of Skarner, or the rapid mobility of Lee Sin, Zed just falls short.

 

 

It’s not just those two though. When you compare him against just about any other assassin or bruiser, he loses out not just in mobility, utility and durability but also in damage. In order for Zed to become more useful, he not only would need some major buffs (which he sorely needs), but the game’s meta is going to need to be seeing some serious shake ups for him to be seen as anything close to viable. Perhaps the AD assassin mid lane will take off, and he’ll be seen as a good option, but don’t expect that to be any time soon.

 

 

Final Verdict

Don’t play under any circumstances. Consider banning him in draft just so no-one on your team can use him.

 
To discuss Zed yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section, or post in the comments section below. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.

WarpPortal’s Thanksgiving Holiday Bazaar

WarpPortal’s Thanksgiving Holiday Bazaar

 

WarpPortal

 

Gravity Interactive, a publisher of exciting massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), is giving players a little something to be thankful for. Ragnarok Online, Rose Online, Requiem: Memento Mori, Dragon Saga and Maestia: Rise of Keledus will all be having their Thanksgiving Sales and events earlier than usual. Make sure to check out all the sales and events starting this coming Tuesday!

 

 

Requiem: Memento Mori – November 16th ~ November 19th

Diabolically Dark Friday Sale and Raffle Event

Requiem is celebrating this Black Friday the only way we know how… by butchering! Prices in our Item Mall is so slashed up, it looks like some hellish fiend had its’ way with it. For those Temperions that indulge in this sale, for every 500 Item Mall Points player spend, will get a raffle ticket that will be cast in a random drawing for some never before seen items in Requiem!

 

 

ROSE Online – November 13th ~ November 27th

ROSE Thanksgiving Pre-Winter Sale!

Haven’t taken the opportunity to check out ROSE? We are offering an Autumn Holiday lucky box, as well as having sales on Shop Coupons to help players increase their own Black Friday sales, and a sale on Storage Expansion to give you extra room to stock up on holiday goodies! From Tuesday, 13th to 27th of November, make sure you keep an eye out for these sales during your Thanksgiving vacation playtime with ROSE!

 

 

Ragnarok Online

 

 

Ragnarok Online – November 14th ~ November 27th

Thanksgiving and Deal Making Celebration!

Ragnarok Fans have the chance to enter the November deal to celebrate Thanksgiving! Enriched Hammer has come to town with his friend, Eat Gear, for a Thanksgiving. Between 14th and 27th of  November, you will meet Enriched Elunium and Enriched Oridecon, HD Elunium and HD Oridecon Sales to welcome them!

 

Dragon Saga – November 14th ~ November 27th

When Deals Collide Party!

Dragon Saga will have harvest-themed events with a special ingredient for a holiday feast, we are not missing out on the Thanksgiving party either! Since the Black Friday sale will be separated to two events, we will offering Bulk, Hastur’s Soul Collection Box, Blizzard Gasha Box, and daily raffles will be held for purchasing sale event items as well.

 

 

Maestia – October 15th – November 30th

November Extravaganza!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday is all about getting great stuff. The first year’s Maestia Turkey Day brings with some wrapping paper giveaway for players to complete their crafting and we will give Party users 20% bonus attack or gold dropping chance. So why not also stuff your experience in the Maestia? That’s right – we will be having a Lucky Spin up to 40% discount over the weekend until at the end of November!

 

 

This is a great time to explore these games! Paying for subscriptions with a credit card is definitely fast and easy. WarpPortal is offering you can get up to 10% Bonus WP Energy more with limited time! More details can be found at http://www.warpportal.com/news/events.aspx?#437. We are also having a Point Conversion Event for Thanksgiving. There will be a bonus applied to all experience the following week. Players will get bonus points for their WarpPortal energy, it’s beginning Wednesday, November 21st to Tuesday, November 27th!

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/16: SWTOR, Ingress, RIFT, and Primal Carnage!

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/16: SWTOR, Ingress, RIFT, and Primal Carnage!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic Goes Free To Play

Yesterday marked the transition from the pay to play model to one that is free to play for SWTOR. At the same time update 1.5 was released giving players access to the much demanded HK-51 companion assassin droid. A new mission area called Section X has also been added giving the players more daily challenges.

 

 

 

Study Shows the Key to Player Loyalty

A study has been conducted by the University at Buffalo School of Management which followed 173 MMORPG players The study showed that giving players more control and ownership of their characters created loyalty as well as giving players a sense of community with chat rooms and guild options.

 

 

Google Introduces Ingress

Google joins the mobile gaming industry with augmented reality game Ingress. For now it is only available for android but an iOS app is coming. The awesome video for Ingress seems like something out of Hollywood. The game is currently in closed beta and you can sign up to take part in it on the official site.

 

 

Rift going Free to Play…in Korea

Just days after the extremely successful launch of Rift’s first expansion Storm Legion news has surfaced that Rift will be going free to play in Korea. The change is to help combat dwindling player numbers which have plagued the MMO in Korea. Other recent efforts by Trion have so far failed. Rift will be f2p in Korea on November 20.

 

 

Primal Carnage Releases New Content

Answering the calls for new content Primal Carnage has been given new maps for players to explore, a new objective based mode called “Get to the Chopper” and announced new skins coming out later this month.